Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone says Sepp Blatter should remain in charge of Fifa despite facing corruption charges.Blatter, who is suspended, is under criminal investigation over a payment made to Uefa boss Michel Platini in 2011. Both men deny any wrongdoing.Ecclestone said: "I don't think he should have ever stepped down. I don't think he should have been challenged."If people allegedly have been corrupted to make things happen in their country, it's good."The 85-year-old added: "It's a tax football had to pay."He also backed Russian President Vladimir Putin and said there was "no place for democracy".Ecclestone, who was talking on Russian television, said the reason Blatter deserved support was "because of him we have a lot of countries around the world that are now playing football".The 17-year Fifa reign of Swiss Blatter, who is suspended for 90 days, ends in February.Ecclestone, who has become notorious for controversial comments in the past, said he thought Putin was "super", adding: "I'm his best supporter."Vladimir Putin, Lewis Hamilton, Russian Grand PrixVladimir Putin attended the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi last weekendIn the past, Ecclestone has referred to women as "domestic appliances" and praised Adolf Hitler as someone who "got things done".Ecclestone has run the commercial side of F1 for nearly 40 years and last year faced two separate trials on corruption charges.A civil case in the UK was dismissed and he paid a German court £60m to end a trial in which he was accused of paying a German banker £26m to ensure a company Ecclestone favoured could buy a stake in F1.Ecclestone reiterated a view he has previously expressed that "Europe is a thing of the past" and said he was "not very enthusiastic about America".About the US, he added: "The biggest problem with them is that they believe [that they are the] greatest sort of power in the world" and that "they are a big island, so they are a bit isolated; they are slowly starting to learn what other people in the world do".The US Grand Prix is in Austin, Texas, next weekend with Ecclestone expected to attend.

“And if these people allegedly have been corrupted to make things happen in their country, it’s good,” the 84-year-old said.

You'll like this one RR

The Formula One Group chief executive praised current world championship leader, Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes, calling the British driver “very talented.”

However, he stressed that Hamilton’s car “is so much better than anybody else’s… so there might be a whole bunch of people down there, that are maybe as good as him, and they never going to be exposed for people to ever know. That’s what’s wrong.”

I just watched a one hour documentary [which the BBC report posted earlier was referring to] about Sepp Blatter ... there are many gunning for him ... unfortunately just as many supporting him. His cunning plan was to give poor nations funds to develop football [good] and in order that they could show their appreciation and vote the way he wanted equal voting rights [very bad].

ZURICH — Swiss authorities began a new series of pre-dawn arrests Thursday in the broad investigation, led by United States officials, into corruption in international soccer. More than a dozen people were expected to be charged, law enforcement officials said, nearly doubling the size of an already huge case that has upended FIFA, soccer’s multibillion-dollar governing body.

Andrew Jennings [a reporter for BBC Panorama] has been convinced that FIFA is corrupt to the core; and has been for decades. A documentary about his investigations was deemed important enough to air during peek viewing time on BBC1 last night. Although few on CTH are inclined to comment, it is apparent by the views that there is considerable interest in the ongoing investigations and prosecutions. For those who don't have access to BBC TV here is a link to the programme .... skip the first section as it's the end of the British soap Eastenders which preceded the programme.

Hopefully this is just the beginning of these two being brought to justice. However ... in all likelihood monies received through corruption will not be retrieved and they will simply continue to live a life of luxury. The FBI will apparently continue to endeavour to make some of that time behind bars:

Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, two of the most powerful figures in global soccer, were barred from the sport for eight years on Monday morning after being found guilty of ethics violations.

The suspensions were imposed by the independent ethics committee of FIFA, soccer’s international governing body. Mr. Blatter, who is FIFA’s longtime president, as well as Mr. Platini, who is the president of UEFA, which ovesees soccer in Europe, are prohibited from taking part in any soccer-related activities while barred — a sanction which, in Mr. Platini’s case, seemingly ends any chance that he will be able to run in February’s special election to fill the post Mr. Blatter has said he would vacate.

Mr. Blatter, 79, and Mr. Platini, 60, had been provisionally suspended since October while the investigative chamber of the ethics committee scrutinized their actions at the helm of the sport, in particular a payment of about $2 million that Mr. Blatter approved for Mr. Platini in 2011. The judiciary chamber of the committee ruled on Monday that there was no legal basis for the payment, and it also said that both were guilty of a conflict of interest.

Increasingly obvious that this guy comes from the land of the cuckoo clock!

Fifa corruption: Sepp Blatter says 'you cannot buy a World Cup'

Former Fifa president Sepp Blatter has insisted the vote to host the 2022 World Cup was not fixed, saying: "You cannot buy a World Cup."

Speaking to The Times, Blatter claimed that former French president Nicolas Sarkozy asked Platini not to vote for the United States to host the 2022 World Cup, which was eventually awarded to Qatar. The Frenchman previously denied this.

"For 2022, Platini at least had the courtesy to phone me and say, 'now we have had a meeting with the head of state and if the head of state is asking me to support France for different reasons then I will'. He said 'my vote will not be for the Americans'.

..........................

He said: "I have killed nobody, I have not robbed a bank, I have not taken any money from anywhere and I was even treating well all my ex-girlfriends.

"It's true. They defend me. One I was married to only for a few months and she is really defending me."

“It is not acceptable. It is not acceptable,” Blatter told reporters. “I was very surprised at Mr. Ocampo invited here for this seminar and then to make such an accusation. Perhaps he is a little bit disappointed because he was the first candidate to be the chair of the ethics committee.”

One [of hopefully many] benefit of the Brexit vote is the further exposure of the sleazebag who runs the EU commission. Text of the article printed in its entirety as, apparently, the green party don't like certain publications from this source'

Still sneering at Britain: Jean-Claude Juncker the boozy bully who sums up all that's rotten about the EU

Everything that is wrong with the EU, the reasons why a majority of British voters plumped for Brexit, could, I suspect, be symbolised by one man this week: Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission.

'Why are you here?' this big-talking little man taunted British MEP Nigel Farage in the European Parliament this week. The President was loving it, like a stand-up comedian working a compliant audience.

Where but in the EU could a small-time politician with no particular talents, from a country the size of Surrey that thrives on unpaid taxes diverted from its fellow member states, have been given the presidency of a commission which — operating in total secrecy — oversees 28 countries (soon to be 27) of 500 million people?

Like some parody of a Mafia don, Juncker darkly warned Britain that it would face 'consequences' for leaving, writes GEOFFREY LEVY

[Juncker gets booed in European Parliament before voted in]

Like some parody of a Mafia don, Juncker darkly warned Britain that it would face 'consequences' for leaving.

The first act of the man who likes to play pinball machines and is said to take his first malt whisky with breakfast, has been to impose a 'presidential ban' on EU officials conducting informal talks with Britain.

But then Juncker, known for his rumpled suits and alcohol-laced breath, is nothing if not a small-town bully-boy politician. He's used to throwing his weight around in Luxembourg, a state built on tax avoidance for which he was largely responsible as prime minister for 18 years — 15 of which he was finance minister.

Tycoons

Largely as a result of Juncker's enthusiasm for tax avoidance deals, Luxembourg's citizens are by far the wealthiest in Europe, with a gross domestic product per capita twice that of Germany and three times that of Britain.

Luxembourg, for the record, gives succour to secretive finance houses, tax-dodging tycoons and corrupt Third World dictators.

Juncker used to boast in speeches how he was involved in 'tough negotiations' that lured the giant American firm Amazon to Luxembourg — this is of course the same Amazon whose billions of pounds in trade in the UK provide scant tax receipts to our Exchequer, money which, after all, could help pay for our hospitals and schools.

Tax-avoiding Apple is another beneficiary — so that if, for example, you download music on iTunes you are dealing with a subsidiary in Luxembourg. It should be noted that at the time Juncker took office, less than two years ago, the ineffectual Commission over which he now presides was meant to be investigating the most egregious cases of Luxembourg's corporate tax deals. What was the result of that, we are entitled to wonder?

State documents from Luxembourg revealed by a whistleblower from a firm of accountants showed how officials under Juncker, when he was PM, fostered a corrosive culture of corporate tax avoidance. Incredibly, this involved more than 300 of the world's biggest companies including — in addition to Amazon and Apple — Disney, Dyson, Microsoft and PepsiCo.

No wonder his appointment as the effective head of the EU caused an outcry, especially from David Cameron. As one prominent German MEP declared at the time: 'When it comes to Jean-Claude Juncker and the EU battle against tax dodging, it would seem the fox has been enlisted to guard the henhouse.'

While Juncker, 61, seems to have expended much energy helping major corporations save millions of pounds, he is not averse to spending millions himself — as long as it is public money, of course.

As Luxembourg's PM, he is said to have lavished huge sums flying government delegations around on luxuriously appointed private jets that were three-quarters empty. On one such jaunt to Lisbon, it was kept waiting at the airport for 24 hours at a cost of 40,000 euros.

For all that, it is being in charge that Jean-Claude Juncker adores most. And with his job as President of the Commission he has hit the jackpot — despite controversial issues in his personal life.

Weakness

He went to boarding school in Belgium and university in Alsace, where he met his future wife, Christiane Frising. Her father was one of Hitler's so-called Propaganda Commissars, and was among those responsible for the 'Germanification' of Luxembourg. He helped enforce the Nuremberg Laws which stripped Jews of their rights, and were a forerunner to the Holocaust.

Of course, no one would hold Juncker accountable for the sins of his father-in-law, which came to light in the German media, yet he has never spoken about this dark chapter in his family's past, not even to condemn it.

As for his drinking — which has afforded him a bitter-sweet relationship with that other renowned boozer Nigel Farage — Juncker is said to have a particular weakness for Glenfarclas malt whisky (which costs up to £130), bottles of which are said to be kept in the fridge behind his Commissioner's desk.

Ben Fayot, a former Labour MEP, has recalled Juncker being someone who 'likes a drink', adding: 'It affected him sometimes, for instance when he was in a meeting and he was not as present as he should have been.'

Juncker denies he has a problem with alcohol, but one mysterious episode occurred in 1989 when he was almost killed in a car accident.

He was in a coma for two weeks. It is something he still 'doesn't like talking about', but his left leg was sufficiently damaged to stop him playing football.

Since then he has become, as he admits, 'perversely fanatical about pinball'.

As well as pinball, he is fanatical about a grandiose idea that gave birth to his greatest and most abiding white elephant back home in Luxembourg. It is a futuristic new city 15 miles south of the capital built around the old steelworks where his father used to work, and barely a mile from where Juncker lived as a boy.

Expense

Called Belval and the size of 120 football pitches, it is being transformed into a vast scientific and cultural centre, served by not one but two railway stations. Work has gone on for a dozen years, and it's not finished.

And you won't be surprised to learn that in this richest of small nations, the area has received generous grants from the EU.

Whether it will ever justify the massive investment is open to debate. Many shops, offices and apartments remain empty, some roads and bridges lead nowhere and completion is a dream — one as unrealistic as the transfer of more and more national powers to an ever more powerful EU.

To Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg is the perfect European state, a financial bolthole that has exploited its EU status to become fabulously rich at the expense of supposed friends.

How many untaxed billions of British money lie in its secret vaults, no one can say. Secretly, through special tax deals, Luxembourg shares in worldwide economic success without doing anything to earn it.

And Juncker is the man largely responsible for it.

This, then, is the posturing martinet hectoring Britain and threatening that we won't be 'sitting at the table any more'.

Ironically, if post-Brexit British firms continue to be successful and deposit profits in Luxembourg, this ultimate symbol of arrogant, out-of-touch Eurocrats will surely be delighted.

MGV12 wrote:With that which is going on in your own Continent [ ] I would have thought you would have other distractions.

Australia has elections coming up, the longest electioneering in the history of our great land...and by all accounts the most boring. The pollies have all been caught lying as usual and it's now up to the Australian people to show their distain.Me? I'm voting for the fishing and shooters party as usual, they block all the bullshit in the Senate, which is why the election was called for in the first place. Nobody trusts either party to rule in their own right anymore. Not when they give tax breaks to the rich and want to tax our old aged pensions even before we get there. A real bunch of no-hopers who think nothing of using helicopters at tax payer expense to go to their own party fundraisers.And we won't even mention the Monk who is considering a back stab and wants hold of the reins of power again, yet last time it was the Captain's Pick that bought the whole shebang down.Good on the Brits for wanting to govern themselves, I just wish they'd ban the police from driving new BMWs at high speed over speed humps.